Historic RBI binge, sweepless streak finally ending among stats of the week

Here’s our weekly look at 10 mind-blowing notes from the last week in baseball (May 17-23).

RBI machine: Luis Matos had quite the stretch on Friday and Saturday, with a five-RBI game followed by a six-RBI game. At 22 years and 111 days old Saturday, Matos became the youngest player with consecutive 5+ RBI games (since RBI official in 1920). Matos’ 11 RBIs tied for the most by a player in a two-game span at age 22 or younger, with 1970 Johnny Bench, 1939 Jim Tabor and 1937 Joe DiMaggio. He’s the fourth Giants player with consecutive 5+ RBI games, joining 1982 Jack Clark, 1951 Don Mueller and 1932 Bill Terry.

Spectacular Shota: Through his latest start Saturday, Shota Imanaga now has a 0.84 ERA. That’s the lowest ERA by a pitcher in his first nine career starts since earned runs became official in both leagues (1913) excluding openers. The only other under 1.00 was 1981 Fernando Valenzuela, at 0.91. It’s the fourth-lowest ERA in the first nine starts of a season by a pitcher in the live-ball era (1920), behind only 2021 Jacob deGrom (0.62), 1966 Juan Marichal (0.69) and 2009 Zack Greinke (0.82).

Oh my, Oneil: Oneil Cruz rewrote the Statcast-era (2015) record books on Tuesday, becoming the first player with three 115+ mph batted balls in a game and the first with two at 120+ mph in a game. Cruz now has three 120+ mph batted balls in his career. The only other player with multiple under Statcast is Giancarlo Stanton, with 14. Stanton has two seasons with multiple: six in 2021 and three in ’18. Cruz has two this year, both on Tuesday.

Ace: Through his latest start Tuesday, Ranger Suárez has a 1.36 ERA. That’s the third-lowest ERA by a Phillies pitcher in his first 10 starts of a season since earned runs became official in the NL (1912), behind only 1916 Grover Alexander (1.24) and 1915 Alexander (1.31) – with both of those occurring in the dead-ball era. He’s one of four pitchers to go 9-0 or better with a sub-1.50 ERA in his first 10 starts of a season since earned runs became official in both leagues, along with 1966 Marichal, 1919 Eddie Cicotte and 1913 Cy Falkenberg.

And finally swept: Teams enter each series trying to win the series, but even just avoiding being swept is worth noting. To that end, the Orioles went 106 straight series without being swept, before they were finally swept by the Cardinals this week. That was tied with the 1903-05 Giants for the second-most consecutive series of multiple games without being swept, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. They trail only the 1942-44 Cardinals (125) on that list.

Juan plus Juan: Wednesday was Juan Soto's 19th career multi-homer game and second of the season. His 19 such games are tied for fourth-most before turning 26, behind only Mel Ott (24), Eddie Mathews (21) and Hal Trosky (20). He’s tied with Jimmie Foxx, Willie Mays, Bob Horner and Alex Rodriguez. Talk about good company.

At 50: The Phillies’ 36-14 start through Wednesday is the best through 50 games in franchise history. This is the 142nd season of Phillies baseball – the club joined the NL in 1883. They’re the sixth team to win at least 36 of their first 50 games in the last 50 seasons, joining the 2001 Mariners (38 wins in first 50), 1998 Yankees (37), 1998 Braves, 1995 Cleveland and 1984 Tigers (39).

Walk the Walk(er): Christian Walker has 14 career homers at Dodger Stadium, including one each on Tuesday and Wednesday, all since the start of 2018. That’s three more than anyone else as a visitor there in that span (Fernando Tatis Jr.). Walker has played 39 games at Dodger Stadium. His 14 homers are tied with Paul Goldschmidt and Dave Kingman for the most in a player’s first 40 games as a visitor there, and he can still add to that total in his next game at Dodger Stadium. Even when we count Dodgers players, only Cody Bellinger (15) had more homers in his first 40 games at the park.

The Sho goes on: In 50 games played this season, Shohei Ohtani is hitting .354 with 13 homers and 13 stolen bases. He’s one of just five players with a .350 or better average and at least 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases in their first 50 games of a season (since 1900). He joins 2018 Mookie Betts (.352 BA, 18 HR, 13 SB), 2005 Brian Roberts (.368 BA, 11 HR, 13 SB), 1997 Larry Walker (.415 BA, 15 HR, 11 SB) and 1958 Willie Mays (.424 BA, 14 HR, 10 SB). Ohtani already has two unanimous MVPs and is off to his best start through 50 games as a hitter, by extra-base hits (31), hits (70), BA (.354), runs (39), total bases (128), OBP (.422), SLG (.646), OPS (1.068) and SB (13).

Current Ironman: Matt Olson has played 505 consecutive games entering the weekend, dating to May 2, 2021. There have been only six longer streaks since 2000, per Elias. They belong to 2000-07 Miguel Tejada (1,152 consecutive games), 2018-22 Whit Merrifield (553), 2010-14 Prince Fielder (547), 2000-03 Alex Rodriguez (546), 2003-06 Hideki Matsui (518) and 2004-07 Mark Teixeira (507).